In response to the devastating tornado that hit Oklahoma City recently, AT&T announced that it will be waiving all overage charges for those affected through June 30.

For those of you who aren’t fully aware of what’s been going on, on Monday afternoon local time, Oklahoma City saw a large tornado system rip through parts of the city and surrounding areas. The whole catastrophe left many buildings flattened and at least 91 fatalities in its wake. According to The New York Times as well as several other media outlets, the storm system was one mile wide.

Several hours later, AT&T ended up announcing that it would be supporting efforts by waiving voice, data and text overage charges through the end of June for affected areas. According to Bryan Gonterman, the state president for AT&T Oklahoma:

Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area Monday. We are coordinating with local authorities and bringing in additional resources.

Due to expectedly high call volumes, Gonterman recommended that those who are trying to reach friends and family in the region should use text messaging instead of voice communications. The wireless carrier also reminded customers that they can contribute $10 to Red Cross humanitarian efforts by texting “REDCROSS” to 90999. The donation will be charged as part of a user’s monthly bill for those of you who decide to contribute.

It’s nice to see larger companies providing relief efforts for such a catastrophic event.

My hometown was hit by a massive tornado on April 27, 2011. When it happened it was like a madhouse and you couldn't get 3/4 of your phone calls to go through so texting was about the only way to communicate. I can personally see where these people will rack up large amounts of texts, etc. if they aren't grandfathered in on unlimited data. This is defintely a classy move by AT&T and I give them major props.

My hometown was hit by a massive tornado on April 27, 2011. When it happened it was like a madhouse and you couldn't get 3/4 of your phone calls to go through so texting was about the only way to communicate. I can personally see where these people will rack up large amounts of texts, etc. if they aren't grandfathered in on unlimited data. This is definitely a classy move by AT&T and I give them major props.

Living in B'ham I was trying to remember if AT&T (or any carrier) did something similar in Alabama after we were hit in 2011. It could be that April 27 was an eye-opening experience for them and now they know what to do.

BTW, my dad was the preacher at Forest Lake Methodist. He left the church around 2005, but old friends were sure to send us pictures of the neighborhood and the parsonage. I was able to drive down Hargrove Road last summer and it wasn't even recognizable.

Originally Posted by fanboyfanboy

Marketing or not props to AT&T for this

Exactly. It always bugs me that when a big company does something good there are always scores of people dismissing it as a selfish act. Even when AT&T does something good, it's still bad.

I live south of there, and to be honest AT&T was the only provider in the area that had decent call out success rates since yesterday afternoon. Most of the cell phone coverage in Moore is out and both VZW and AT&T have microtowers and temp/portable setups in place.

Living in B'ham I was trying to remember if AT&T (or any carrier) did something similar in Alabama after we were hit in 2011. It could be that April 27 was an eye-opening experience for them and now they know what to do.

BTW, my dad was the preacher at Forest Lake Methodist. He left the church around 2005, but old friends were sure to send us pictures of the neighborhood and the parsonage. I was able to drive down Hargrove Road last summer and it wasn't even recognizable.

Exactly. It always bugs me that when a big company does something good there are always scores of people dismissing it as a selfish act. Even when AT&T does something good, it's still bad.

Good grief. Some people need to get off their high horse.

I don't believe that they did the same thing back in 2011. It would have been a nice gesture at the time (not complaining at all though) but 2 years removed I can see how this will help these families in need now. Tuscaloosa's landscape in the main areas of 15th Street and McFarland Blvd have been changed forever. While this is sad that a lot of it if not most is not recognizable even today it has given Tuscaloosa the opportunity to improve the image of some places. But even with this there is negativity because so many people have now been misplaced and would like to build back but won't have the oppotunity because of new regulations and city ordinances.

People can say this is a marketing ploy all they want, but when you or your town is hit with something as devasting as a tornado whiping out entire neighborhoods then it would be best for them to keep their mouths shut and let a company try to help lighten the financial burdens for people in whatever way they can.

Oh my (Sarcastic clapping). AT&T, you are sooooo nice. You are my hero. Everyone should get AT&T service so they won't be screwed when a tornado rips their families away! Oh, such grace AT&T. Such grace (grumpy cat face). This totally makes up for raping the rest of us with outrageous phone bills, corrupt overages, and ridiculous data plans. This totally makes me forget about you taking away my unlimited plan! Pat on your back guys! Pat on your backs! SMFH!!!!!

This is nothing but a look-at-what-we're-doing marketing scheme. It's not like these waived overages cost AT&T anything in the first place, and without this natural disaster, they were not likely to occur anyway so it's not even a matter of lost revenue to AT&T.

Well then by your very courteous and intellectual insight, every company and/or person that has made or will make a donation or waive anything for these victims is just doing scumbag marketing or wanting people to look at what they did. If you say differently then present us with a list of what people or companies would have donated money or help to this town just for the heck of it if there was not a natural disaster? Who is to say that AT&T will not make donations to help in rebuilding and/or economic recovery? At this point they are focusing on cellular overages that people are incurring because they are trying to find out where friends and family are.

You can argue that these charges would not have occured if it were not for a disaster, but I would rather AT&T say don't worry about paying these overages than to expect them to pay them even though most of these people just lost everything they had. There are a lot more things that these people should have to worry about than having to pay cellular overages like rebuilding their homes and trying to salvage what wasn't blown away to who knows where.